Fifty years ago, even John Graves probably didn't know a classic
was in the works. But after his Goodbye to a River was published in
October 1960, the Fort Worth native had a major Texas work on his
hands.

Appropriately, Texans still celebrate his tale of traveling down
the Brazos River, in search of Texas' past. The Witliff Collection
at Texas State University, for example, is hosting a remembrance of
the book, even including Graves' paddle.

Goodbye to a River won the Texas Institute of Letters' Carr P.
Collins award in 1961 and was nominated for a National Book Award.
More than those honors, his work has survived as a Texas classic,
earning Graves the title of Texas' Thoreau.

Indeed, his contributions stand alongside those of such Texas
writers as Larry McMurtry and J. Frank Dobie. Read them, and you
get a sense of our state.

Or what our state was.

Graves wrote his book after returning from living in New York
and Europe. Long before, he had roamed the Texas outdoors and
traveled the Brazos as a boy.

When he came back, a dam was planned for the famous river to
make way for all the people who were moving to our cities and
suburbs. So, he put his canoe in the Brazos to say farewell to the
river he had known. In short, he was describing the separation
between post-war Texans and their natural world.

This book richly deserves its celebration, which also raises two
questions: In 50 years, which writers will Texans celebrate? And
what will those authors lament as a passing of Texas lore?

Those are perplexing questions because there are no natural
heirs apparent to Graves, McMurtry or even historian T.R.
Fehrenbach. Modern Texas certainly warrants the insight of a keen
writer.

The border is a complex place. A new wave of immigrants is
struggling to make it here. And most of us live in a metropolitan
triangle from Houston-Galveston to Austin-San Antonio to
Dallas-Fort Worth.

Who will capture the essence of that Texas? And what have we
given up to get to this point, beyond our connection to a rural
past?

We don't know the answers, but we hope the Texas traits of
independence, resilience and respect for the natural world will
endure. Otherwise, we would be no different than, say, Indiana, and
that would be the ultimate loss.